Final Fantasy IV Impressions: Day 5

By cann3dheat July 27, 2008 3 Comments

Final Fantasy IV - DS

At this point, I'm really just getting down some points for my review coming Monday (I promise). If I could, I'd give the game a 3.5* score, but since I've decided to take a page out of the Giant Bomb book, I'm trying to stick with full *'s. It's odd deciding whether the game has qualities that would push it back to 3*'s or if good enough to deserve 4. Only time will tell.

In terms of progress, today I finished another boss and am working on another. I do feel bad about not completely finishing this game before I review it, but problem is, I'd be at the game for weeks if I wanted to finish it before reviewing it. Plus, I'd probably get so worn out playing the game that it would take away from the experience. In my opinion, RPG's aren't meant to be speed through in a matter of days, especially turn-based ones. Sure, the game clock may say that you've only played a total of xx hours, but you've spanned that out over a few weeks/months, depending on the game.

Also, I'm really enjoying the auto-battle system now. No if's, and's or but's about it. It allows me to do other things while playing the game, which a lot of the time is very handy. FFIV is very much the busy man's RPG. That, or it's the lazy man's RPG. Funny how that works...

3 Comments

Final Fantasy IV Impressions: Day 4

By cann3dheat July 25, 2008 2 Comments

Final Fantasy IV - DS

Sorry guys, not much Final Fantasy IV was played today. I was working most of the day, not to mention I woke up late since my shift started at one. Still, when I got home I managed to play through a boss battle, and even though two of my characters died, I still managed to get through it without too much trouble. Looks like I need to (auto) grind some more.

Also, I haven't really turned my DS up to full volume up in a long time, but I did today. Damn, that thing is loud. Maybe it's different on the phat DS than it is on the Lite, but the background music just filled the room. Twang twang twang.

Shift ends earlier tomorrow, so I should be able to squeeze in enough FFIV time.

:)

2 Comments

Final Fantasy IV Impressions: Day 3

By cann3dheat July 24, 2008 5 Comments

Final Fantasy IV - DS

You know, I'm really starting to like this auto-battle. Now that I've tweaked the setting so that they'd fight like I would if I were giving input, I can really just sit back and relax. It's gotten to the point where I really enjoy having the game do the fighting for me.

It's not that I'm lazy, or that I all-together hate fighting in RPG's. No, it's not that at all. I've plugged away plenty of hours pressing buttons and waiting for the corresponding animation, but that's just the thing. There's very little user interaction. I select the attack and that's the end of it. This is why I loved Paper Matio (or should I say, why I still love Paper Mario), is that it at least required you to sit around and help out, even if you just did the same motions every time. Like I said, maybe this is a feature that's been implimented in games before, but Final Fantasy IV takes the monotomy out of fighting in turn-based RPG's, and for that, I'm thankful.

Outside of loving auto-battle, I've just been tweaking the settings to enjoy the game more. For some reason, I thought six was the fastest battle option, which turned out to be the slowest after bringing the fighting speed down (up?) to one. Believe me, that is the only way to play this game. Otherwise, you're just waiting forever between each attack, and it just gets boring.

I've also gained some new characters in my party, as well as drew a giant penis on the face of Whyt, my little helper which requires me to train it via (what I assume to be) DS exclusive brain-puzzles. The intelligence puzzle was actually quite challenging, and I found myself getting somewhat frustrated. Granted, I had the TV on while I was trying to complete the puzzle, but the highest score I could manage was only 1,000 after about 10 minutes. I probably could have gotten a higher score if I had gone at it longer, but I can only take so much addition and subtraction.

At this point, I'm really just deciding how good of a game this is. It's good, but it's not exactly a game for everyone. The auto-battle function really opens the game up to a wider audience, but at the same time is a strike against the game, and the genre as a whole. The visuals are great, and are honestly the best part about the game. The gameplay is the same, so there isn't much to talk about there, but the translation as a whole is what I'm really focusing on. Expect a review after the weekend is done, along with a video review. Maybe. If you're lucky.

5 Comments

Video Testing

By cann3dheat July 24, 2008 4 Comments

  

4 Comments

Final Fantasy IV Impressions: Day 2

By cann3dheat July 24, 2008 7 Comments

Two words. "Auto-battle." Grinding is now a thing of the past. I just let the game sit on my desk, I'd move back and forth across the Overworld and let the game to the grinding for me. Now for some, this is a terrible aspect of the game (note: you can turn Auto-battle on/off by simply pressing the X button), because grinding is a staple of the RPG genre. But for others, like me, who aren't to keen on J-PRG's in the first place, this is quite the guilty pleasure. I skipped all of the (what I deem to be) unnecessary combat and my characters leveled up while I went and did other things. Granted, I still had to be cognizant of the game, as I couldn't just let it sit there while I do nothing, but very little input was require from me.

Outside of me not grinding, I made a little progress today. Tomorrow will be the first day that I can really sit down and play it, seeing as how I've been swamped with work and school lately. I'm not sure how far I'll get through the game before I review it, since the story isn't exactly new. I'll mainly focus on the translation and the visuals, which grow on me the more I play the game.

Anyways, that's it for day two. If you guys have any comments, or have anything you'd like me to focus on, be sure to leave it in a comment below and I'll look into it. Maybe I'll even name one of my characters the way you want ;)

7 Comments

Final Fantasy IV Impressions: Day 1

By cann3dheat July 22, 2008 6 Comments

Final Fantasy IV

I won't lie, I've never been much of a J-RPG fan, but upon recommendation, I've decided to check out Final Fantasy IV for the DS. I've only played about twenty minutes thus far (contrary to popular user belief, spending this length of time with the game does not warrant a review), so this will be quite the skinny post.

The visuals have been the thing that have really stuck out so far. Along with the voiced dialogue, it's quite the step up from the original FFIV, but that goes without saying. Gameplay wise, it starts out just like all the original 2D, top-down Final Fantasy games, so nothing to report there. Combat is also about the same. Everything has just seen a slight update.

More impressions to come over the next few days, hopefully leading up to a review.

6 Comments

#GiantBomb

By cann3dheat July 21, 2008 2 Comments

We've got a small group of people in IRC and we're looking for more.

Directions here.

Dogs in suits not included.

2 Comments

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